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JOHN DANIEL RUNKLE 

I822-I902 



H /iDemorial 

By H. W. TYLER 



Reprinted from the Technology Review, Vol. IV., No. 3 



BOSTON 

Geo. H. Ellis Co., Printers, 272 Congress Street 

1902 



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JOHN DANIEL RUNKLE * 

1822-1902 

S.B., A.M., Harvard, 1851; Ph.D., Hamilton, 1867; LL.D., 

Wesleyan, i8jl. 
Professor of Mathematics, 18 65-1902 ; Acting President, 1868- 

1870; President, i8jo-i8j8. 



John D. Runkle was born at Root, N.Y., and died at 
Southwest Harbor, Me., near the close of his eightieth 
year. More than half of his long life was devoted to 
the creation and upbuilding of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, of which, next to President Rogers, he was 
the chief founder. It is a forcible reminder of the brevity 
of our corporate existence that it dates only from the 
middle age of our friend who but yesterday was with us. 
A review of the Institute's life is a review of the later 
chapters of his own. 

As a boy, he led the self-helpful life of the farm, heavily 
handicapped in the struggle for education, but none the 
less certain of ultimate success. Not until 1847 did he 
enter college, the newly established Lawrence Scientific 
School of Harvard University. His name stands alone in 

*The writer of this paper is indebted to the excellent account of Professor Runkle' s life 
contained in the Technique of the class of 1 901. The effective researches on which it was 
based make it a valuable contribution to the history of the Institute. 



the catalogue of 1848-49 as "student in mathematics." 
Edward Everett was President ; the Faculty of the Scien- 
tific School included Eben N. Horsford as Dean, Benjamin 
Peirce, Louis Agassiz, Asa Gray, Jeffries Wyman, Joseph 
Lovering, J. W. Webster, and the Bonds. John W. 
Draper and James E. Oliver were fellow-students ; Josiah 
P. Cooke and William T. Harris, resident graduates. No 
diploma was offered, but certificates of the number of terms 
of attendance and of the studies pursued were given. The 
number and choice of studies were optional. Attendance 
was voluntary. "The government of the University wish 
wholly to discourage the resort of young men to the Scien- 
tific School who do not possess that stability of character 
and firmness of purpose which will insure a faithful per- 
formance of duty without academic discipline." Runkle 
was a member of the first graduating class, of 1851, with 
Joseph Le Conte and David A. Wells. He received the 
degree of Bachelor of Science, and at the same time, for 
high scholarship, the honorary degree of Master of Arts. 
It is interesting that Runkle, after his own graduation, 
brought two of his four younger brothers to Harvard. 

At the middle of the last century, scientific work in the 
United States was limited alike in scope and in estimation. 
The colleges — as well as those called universities — nat- 
urally included mathematics in their curricula, though only 
of an elementary sort, ending with a simple treatment of 
the calculus. The physical and natural sciences, if not 
excluded, were in general presented as " information 
courses," with no possibility of adequate appreciation, ex- 
cept in the occasional case of a student of native genius 
having the good fortune to secure close relations with an 
inspiring teacher. Astronomy was, in some measure, an 
exception. As then understood, it had reached a relatively 



high degree of completeness, in the sense that its observed 
phenomena had been mathematically correlated and made 
the basis of accurate prediction. At the same time the 
familiarity of these phenomena, the magnificence of some 
of them, the overwhelming magnitudes of space and time, 
stimulated the imagination of the educated public, and 
developed a degree of popular interest shared only in lim- 
ited measure by the sister science, geology. It is interest- 
ing to note that Rogers came to his Institute work in gen- 
eral applied science through geology, as Runkle came 
through mathematical astronomy. 

It is often not appreciated how modern a development is 
the science of pure mathematics. The boundary line be- 
tween pure and applied mathematics is indeed — and fortu- 
nately — a vague and shifting one. It may be said that 
the distinction is mainly subjective, corresponding to di- 
verse attitudes and aims of students of the science. Ob- 
jectively, pure mathematics is a science based on processes 
of abstract thinking. Applied mathematics is the corre- 
sponding quantitative treatment of concrete phenomena. 
The pure mathematics of to-day is applied to-morrow or 
the day after. In 1850 the great researches of the Euro- 
pean mathematicians of the preceding half-century were 
little known in this country. Our own scholars of mathe- 
matical bent naturally gravitated into mathematical astron- 
omy, — thus Benjamin Peirce and many of his students. 

In this connection it may be remarked that in the pref- 
ace of his treatise on Analytic Mechanics in 1855, Peirce 
states that he has been induced to undertake its publication 
" at the request of some of my pupils, and especially of my 
friend, Mr. John D. Runkle." 

The work of computation for the Nautical Almanac was 
carried on at this time in Cambridge by a staff including, 



among other men of subsequent eminence, Simon New- 
comb, Asaph Hall, George W. Hill, T. H. Safford, and 
J. M. Van Vleck. Mr. Runkle's connection with the 
Almanac began in 1849, an d continued in some form as 
late as 1884. 

In 1858 Mr. Runkle founded the Mathematical Monthly 
on the basis of replies received in response to the follow- 
ing letter, addressed to many of the most eminent mathe- 
maticians and educators in the various parts of the United 
States : — 

Nautical Almanac Office, Cambridge, February 13, 1858. 

Dear &'r, — Allow me to call your attention to the following con- 
siderations : You are aware, that, while almost every science, as well 
as art, has its own appropriate journal, around which corresponding 
interests and tastes cluster, by which special research is encouraged, 
and through which all the valuable results are communicated to the 
world, the science of Mathematics is still without its own particular 
organ. 

Now it seems to us that such a journal is needed ; one that shall 
embrace, among its contributors, the best talent, in order that 
younger laborers in the same field may always have before them a 
high standard of excellence, and that it may be a fair index of the 
mathematical ability of the country. On the other hand, however, 
care should be taken not to graduate it, as a whole, too high above 
the average attainments of mathematical students : otherwise, only 
the few would be interested in it or benefited by it. It should 
therefore embrace in its pages solutions, demonstrations, and dis- 
cussions in all branches of the science, as well as in all its various 
applications. 

It should contain notes and queries, notices and reviews of all 
the principal mathematical works issued in this country as well as 
in Europe. 

In short, it should be the medium of all kinds of information per- 
taining to the science, to which a large proportion of our mathe- 
matical students have at present no ready access. 



Such is, in brief, our idea of the character the journal should 
possess to insure to it the greatest usefulness and most permanent 
success. . . . With much esteem, 

Yours truly, 

J. D. RUNKLE. 

Encouragement was received and formal indorsement was 
given by the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science and by several educational bodies. 

The list of contributors included many distinguished 
names, among others Arthur Cayley, William Chauvenet, 
George W. Hill, Simon Newcomb, Benjamin Peirce, John 
Herschel. 

In the " Teaching and History of Mathematics in the 
United States," Cajori says : — 

The time for beginning the publication of a long-lived mathe- 
matical journal was not opportune. Three volumes only appeared. 
On a fly-leaf the editor announced to his subscribers that over one- 
third of the subscribers to Volume I. discontinued their subscrip- 
tions at the close. " I have supposed," he says, <c that those who 
continued their subscription to the second volume would not be so 
likely to discontinue it to the third volume, and I have made my 
arrangements accordingly. If, however, any considerable number 
should discontinue now, it will be subject to very serious loss. . . . 
I ask as a favor for all to continue to Volume III., and notify me 
during the year if they intend to discontinue at its close. I shall 
then know whether to begin the fourth volume. I shall not 
realize a dollar." This announcement discloses obstacles which 
all our journals that have been dependent entirely upon their sub- 
scribers for financial support have had to encounter, and which 
none except the more recent could long resist. Moreover, the 
Civil War was now at hand. On account of the present disturbed 
state of public affairs the publication of the Mathematical Monthly 
was discontinued. 



8 

The foundation of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, like most notable forward movements, was largely- 
due to the enthusiasm of young men ; and the statement 
does not lose its fundamental significance if it be added at 
once that youth may designate an attribute of temperament 
rather than mere fewness of years. 

Professor William Barton Rogers came to Boston in 1853, 
— in his forty-ninth year, — bringing with him not indeed 
a matured plan for an Institute of Technology, but rather 
that enthusiasm, insight, breadth of scientific attainment, 
skill in popular exposition, and fitness for leadership which 
enabled him to organize success. 

He occupied himself in writing and lecturing on scientific 
subjects, and became the natural leader of a group of en- 
lightened citizens eager for the development of compre- 
hensive plans for educational and scientific institutions in 
the land then being reclaimed from the tidal waters of the 
Back Bay. It would be interesting to follow the gradual 
crystallization of these plans from original relative vagueness 
into definite symmetry, and incidentally to trace the various 
influences of acquaintance with foreign institutions on the 
part of some of the persons co-operating in the general 
undertaking. 

In February, 1859, a meeting was held of "individuals 
representing Associations of Agriculture, Horticulture, Art, 
Science, and various Industrial, Educational, and Moral In- 
terests of the State," with a view to memorializing the leg- 
islature for a grant of land belonging to the Commonwealth, 
in aid of a plan for a conservatory of art and science, in line 
with a recommendation in the annual message of Governor 
Banks. The plan as elaborated aimed to present scientific 
information and collections in popular form to a large con- 
stituency. 



Further progress of this effort up to i860 is embodied in 
the " Objects and Plan of an Institute of Technology, in- 
cluding a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School 
of Industrial Science/' prepared by Professor Rogers. This 
exposition was sent to a considerable number of prominent 
persons, in anticipation of a meeting ; and at the meeting a 
committee of twenty, to which Professor Rogers was added 
as chairman, was appointed to act generally in behalf of the 
proposed association, until it should be legally incorporated 
as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Runkle 
was a member of this committee, and during the subsequent 
preliminary steps his name continually recurs. His own 
review of these developments may be found in an address 
in memory of President Rogers before the Society of Arts 
in October, 1882. 

In April, 1862, Mr. Runkle, as first Secretary of the 
Institute, notified Professor Rogers of his election as 
President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
to serve until the first annual meeting, at which time the 
government for the ensuing year would be elected. At 
this first annual meeting, Mr. Runkle was elected chairman 
of the Committee on Publication. 

A further development of the embryo school is repre- 
sented by the " Scope and Plan of the School of Industrial 
Science," prepared by President Rogers, adopted in May, 
1864, and remaining since that time our "intellectual 
charter." 

About this time, President Rogers writes that " with the 
aid of Professor Runkle and Dr. Watson, a graduate of the 
Fonts et Chaussees, I am framing a course of applied mathe- 
matics for our Institute, reaching from the very elements 
up to the fullest demands of the scientific engineer." 

In January, 1865, Runkle writes to Rogers, discussing at 



IO 



length the organization and plan of the new school, saying 
of the " Scope and Plan " : "I am more than ever delighted 
with it. I have analyzed it with the greatest care, carrying 
in imagination students through each of the courses from 
year to year ; and I find it to my mind perfect in all its 
parts." As to his extended list of professorships he adds : 
" It might be the best plan to appoint young men who 
would . . . grow up under your eye and direction." . . . 
The gradual fulfilment of the great ideal was henceforth his 
life purpose. 

In February, 1865, the President and Professors Runkle 
and Watson began to meet their classes, the original 
Faculty including also Professors Storer in Chemistry and 
Bocher in French and Mr. W. T. Carlton in Free-hand 
Drawing. 

In October, 1868, the first class having been graduated 
but a few months before, President Rogers, on whom so 
much depended, was incapacitated by illness. At that time 
Professor Runkle was his chief lieutenant, with most cordial 
personal relations ; and his prompt choice as Acting 
President, in accordance with President Rogers's expressed 
desire, was thus most natural and fitting. This appoint- 
ment was held until 1870, a period including the election 
of Professor Eliot as President of Harvard University, the 
preparation by Professor Edward Pickering of detailed 
plans for a physical laboratory, and the failure of an appli- 
cation for State aid. Interesting glimpses of this period 
are afforded by the " Life and Letters " of President 
Rogers. 

July 4, 1869, Professor Runkle writes to Mrs. Rogers 
with a foreshadowing of future development : — 

Last spring at the Academy I met Commodore Rodgers, and the 
idea occurred to me that perhaps, in some way, our students in this 



1 1 

department [Mechanical Engineering] might gain admission to the 
machine shop of the Navy Yard, during their long summer vaca- 
tions, as volunteers. I suggested the idea to the commodore, who 
said it would give him the greatest pleasure to issue orders in 
favor of any students I should send him. Now Mr. Hall and 
three of our students in Mechanical Engineering are at work in 
the Yard with every advantage that that great shop can offer them. 
It virtually gives the Institute, without cost, a shop which it could 
not supply without a mint of money ; and if the students do right, 
as I know they will, all future classes will have the same oppor- 
tunity. 

. . . But, my dear Mrs. Rogers, do not bring all these things to 
the attention of the President. They are my sleeping as well as 
waking thoughts, and I know that however much he might agree 
and sympathize with me in them, they would be far too exciting. 
His approbation is all the reward I ask; and at any rate he will 
always know that in all I do I have but one end, the good of 
the Institute, in view. . . . 

In May, 1870, President Rogers, on account of con- 
tinued ill-health, finally tendered his resignation of the 
Presidency, which was reluctantly accepted by the Corpora- 
tion through a committee under the chairmanship of Dr. 
Runkle. 

On the same day with his resignation, President Rogers 
wrote from Philadelphia : — 

To the Government of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology : 

Gentlemen, — In retiring from the Presidency of the Institute, I 
trust you will not deem me presumptuous in recommending Pro- 
fessor Runkle as my successor. 

I know of no one who is more thoroughly familiar with the 
objects and spirit of its organization or who would better carry 
them out in its development. His faithful services and tried abil- 



12 

ity in administering the affairs of the Institute for the last two 
sessions appear to me eminently to fit him for this position ; and, 
should he be your choice, I shall, in retiring, have the satisfaction 
of feeling that the Institute is in the charge of one who will bring 
experience as well as earnest zeal to its advancement. ... 

In the same year, as in a similar later exigency, pro- 
posals were received looking toward some connection be- 
tween the Institute and Harvard University. The nego- 
tiations following were difficult, and necessarily involved no 
little embarrassment and responsibility for the Acting 
President and his associates. They met both with courage. 
Professor Runkle was elected President in spite of adverse 
influences. The integrity and independence of the Insti- 
tute were preserved. 

Dr. Runkle held the Presidency of the Institute from 
October, 1870, for eight years, — a period momentous for 
the school, momentous for himself. The situation was 
a most exacting one, making altogether exceptional de- 
mands. The school, only five years old, was in no condi- 
tion to lose the guidance of its founder. It had not yet 
gathered the momentum necessary for steady, straight- 
forward progress. Its general direction was indeed deter- 
mined ; but it was a ship sailing seas not well charted, with 
many chances of shipwreck even without a change of navi- 
gator. The new head must have wisdom, courage, sincer- 
ity, resolute initiative, but, above all, devoted, self-sacrificing 
loyalty. Opinions did and will differ as to President 
Runkle's judgment on the difficult questions that, as time 
passed, pressed overwhelmingly upon him for solution. 
No man could have been more devotedly loyal to the 
school or to its founder, his predecessor and ultimately 
his successor. None could have shown more steadfast 
courage, not only against heavy odds, but too often with 
but feeble support. 



i3 

Any connected narrative of Dr. Runkle's Presidency 
would transcend the limits of this paper, but certain salient 
or significant elements may be noted. 

The courses of instruction in [868 were : Mechanical En- 
gineering, Civil and Topographical Engineering, Chemistry, 
Geology and Mining, Building and Architecture, Science 
and Literature, all being identical for the first two years. 

In 1878, Metallurgy, Natural History, Physics, and 
Philosophy had been added. 

The Faculty of 1868 included, besides Acting President 
Runkle, William B. Rogers, Geology; Frank H. Storer, 
General and Industrial Chemistry ; Charles W. Eliot, Ana- 
lytical Chemistry and Metallurgy ; Cyrus M. Warren, 
Organic Chemistry ; William P. Atkinson, English Lan- 
guage and Literature ; Ferdinand Bocher, Modern Lan- 
guages ; John B. Henck, Civil and Topographical Engi- 
neering ; William Watson, Descriptive Geometry and 
Mechanical Engineering ; William R. Ware, Architecture ; 
George A. Osborne, Astronomy and Navigation ; Alfred P. 
Rockwell, Mining Engineering ; Edward C. Pickering, 
Physics. 

In 1878 Storer, Bocher, and Pickering had followed 
Eliot to Harvard ; Warren, Watson, and Rockwell had 
also resigned. New members of the Faculty included 
Samuel Kneeland, Zoology and Physiology ; John M. Ord- 
way, Metallurgy and Industrial Chemistry ; James M. 
Crafts, Organic Chemistry ; Robert H. Richards, Mining 
Engineering; Thomas Sterry Hunt, Geology; George H. 
Howison, Logic and the Philosophy of Science ; William 
Ripley Nichols, General Chemistry ; Charles P. Otis, Mod- 
ern Languages; Charles H. Wing, Analytical Chemistry; 
Alpheus Hyatt, Palaeontology ; William H. Niles, Physi- 
cal Geology and Geography ; Channing Whitaker, Me- 



chanical Engineering ; Charles R. Cross, Physics and De- 
scriptive Astronomy ; Gaetano Lanza, Theoretical and 
Applied Mechanics ; Henry W. Hubbell, Military Science 
and Tactics. 

In 1868 one class of fourteen members had graduated. 

The Rogers Building was just completed, but at a cost 
crippling the Institute treasury. 

By 1878 more than two hundred men had graduated ; and 
most of them were by good work in responsible posts, 
strengthening the reputation of the school. Two buildings 
had been added. 
. The total number of students by years was : 1868, 172 ; 
1869, 206 ; 1870, 224; 1871, 261; 1872, 348; 1873, 
276; 1874, 248; 1875, 2 SS', l8 7 6 > 2I 5; l8 77> 194. It 
will be borne in mind that the panic of 1873 caused a 
general falling off in college attendance. President Runkle 
was confronted at the outset by the pressure of over-rapid 
growth, then by discouraging decline. 

The more notable events of the Runkle presidency 
were : the futile negotiations, already referred to, with 
Harvard University for a union ; the establishment of the 
laboratories of mining engineering and metallurgy ; the 
introduction of shop instruction and the foundation of the 
School of Mechanic Arts; the development of professional 
summer schools in the field ; the beginnings of an engineer- 
ing laboratory ; the increased efficiency of military instruc- 
tion and the summer encampment at Philadelphia in 1876 ; 
the erection of a gymnasium, including a lunch-room ; the 
admission of women as students. 

The printed records for this period, 1 871-1877, are 
particularly complete, the President's Reports including 
also extended departmental reports ; and from these in their 
order the following notes are mainly taken. Some of the 



*5 

expressions, now time-honored, have in their original con- 
text a surprising freshness in the obvious novelty of the 
ideas presented. 

In 1872 announcement is made of the first field excur- 
sion for students in Civil Engineering, with the statement, 
" We hope to do this summer for bridge construction what 
was done in the last for Mining Engineering and Metal- 
lurgy." 

In the previous year, President Runkle had conducted 
an expedition to Colorado and Utah for the observation of 
mines and mining processes. The party consisted of five 
professors and fifteen students. Much valuable informa- 
tion and important contributions of ore were received. 

It was during this excursion, while observing the wrecks 
of fortunes strown all over the territories, that the thought 
occurred to us that much of this waste was due to a want 
of practical skill joined with scientific knowledge, and 
that the opportunity for experimenting upon comparatively 
large quantities of ores must be furnished to our students 
during their course, as a part of their laboratory work. 
After disbanding the party I visited San Francisco, and had 
the good fortune to make the acquaintance of some skilful 
practical metallurgists, who were making the examination 
of ores a specialty, and had built up laboratories for ore- 
dressing, on about the scale we needed. But the processes 
were detached, and no attempt was made to represent the 
best forms and kinds of machinery in use at that time in 
California for the reduction of gold and silver ores. . . . 

The furnaces in the Metallurgical laboratory were de- 
signed by Professor Ordway and built under his direction, 
while the Mining laboratory has reached its present state 
of progress almost entirely through the ability, practical 
skill, and untiring energy of Professor Richards. Thus, 
what was a conviction has become a practical reality. 

Announcement is made of the intention of Mr. John 



i6 

Amory Lowell, trustee of the Lowell Institute, to establish 
courses of instruction in Designing, as applied to the Indus- 
trial Arts. 

It is stated that, if the new class is likely to exceed 
one hundred, it will involve the necessity of considering 
the erection of a new building. This first President's Re- 
port closes with a brief statement of the resources of the 
Institute up to that time, showing cash gifts received to the 
amount of nearly $600,000, the chief benefactors being 
William J. Walker and Ralph Huntington. The name 
of the former was given to the professorship afterwards 
held by Dr. Runkle, that of the latter to the "great hall " 
of the Rogers Building. 

In June, 1871, it had been 

Voted, That the Corporation will hereafter confer the degree of 

Bachelor of Science in the department of , instead of 

graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 
department of , as heretofore. 

To establish advanced courses of study, and to confer the degree 
of Doctor of Science. 

In the departmental reports of 1872 it is stated that the 
chemical laboratory covered 4,000 square feet ; the mining 
laboratories, 2,000 square feet ; the physical laboratory, 
3,500 ; and the drawing-rooms, 8,500. (The present chemi- 
cal laboratories occupy some 30,000 square feet.) 

The Report for 1873 mentions the success of an applica- 
tion to the legislature for additional land * on the Back 
Bay, and the more complete equipment of the mining and 
metallurgical laboratories. The preliminary announcement 
of the Lowell School of Design is quoted, and reference is 
made to the appointment of Lieutenant Zalinski, and of 

* A trapezoidal lot at the junction of Boylston Street and Huntington Avenue. 



i7 

Professor Whitaker as Professor Watson's successor as 
head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The 
President states that he has " asked Professor Whitaker to 
suggest such a laboratory as will best aid in the education 
of mechanical engineers, and particularly in the solution 
of those experimental problems which lie at the foundation 
of all safe theory or practice." He expresses the earnest 
wish that the Corporation will authorize the establishment 
of this laboratory at as early a day as possible. The ex- 
pectation is stated that the elements of mechanical and free- 
hand drawing may be required for admission at a time not 
far distant. 

The statistics for these years indicate a notably high 
proportion of Massachusetts students, usually about five- 
sixths of the whole. 

In December, 1872, solid geometry and the rudiments 
of French were added to the requirements for admission, 
and the fee was advanced to $200 a year. The use of the 
large hall was granted to Trinity Church for a place of 
worship. 

As to English, Professor Atkinson's successive reports 
are interesting and instructive. For example, in 1873 he 
says what is in great measure true in 1902 : — 

Practically a large majority of our regular students have 
to crowd four-and-a-half to five years' mathematical and 
scientific work into four years ; and this leaves but a small 
amount of mental energy to be devoted to studies not 
strictly professional. There is one, and only one remedy 
for this difficulty, and that is a better preparation ; and that 
not more, or even so much in English and mathematical as 
in elementary scientific study. In consequence of the very 
defective condition of school instruction in science in this 
country, our students have practically to begin the study of 
the very rudiments of physics, chemistry and the different 



i8 

branches of natural history at the age of sixteen or seven- 
teen, a period of life at which, if our schools were per- 
fectly organized, these elements would all have been 
acquired. 

Lieutenant Zalinski's report of the same year contains an 
urgent recommendation for the construction of a drill-hall 
and gymnasium, and refers to the beneficial effect of the 
trial of a student by a court-martial composed of his fellow- 
students for " disobedience of orders " and for " conduct 
unbecoming a gentleman." 

In 1873 the attendance of students declined sharply, in 
consequence of the occurrence of a general financial crisis 
at the same time with advances in the tuition fee and in 
entrance requirements. Nevertheless, the Report for 1874 
does not fail to reiterate the need of additional space and 
of the development of new lines of work. Announcement 
is made of the differentiation of courses at the beginning 
of the second year, and of the establishment of new courses 
in metallurgy, in physics, and in philosophy. It is stated 
that graduates have for the first time been able to present 
their theses before the final examinations — instead of at 
some indefinite later date. Undeterred by diminished 
numbers, the President urges the further advance of en- 
trance requirements to include more algebra, and plane 
and spherical trigonometry, and emphasizes the need of 
laboratory instruction in elementary chemistry in every 
secondary school. As to English, — 

An occasional exercise in composition is not sufficient. 
An exercise in writing, in some form or other, should be 
the one never to be omitted for a single day, until, first, 
accuracy, and second, facility of expression have been 
acquired. 



i9 

The erection is reported of * 

an excellent building, 155 feet long by 50 feet in 
width, and one story in height, covered with corrugated 
iron and a slated roof, containing a light and well venti- 
lated drill-hall, with ample space for gun-racks, wardrobes 
for uniforms, and boxes for those who use the gymnasium. 

Where the health of one student is injured simply by 
over study, the health of many is injured by want of exer- 
cise, or other preventable causes, while over study is usu- 
ally the only cause assigned. It is true that each class 
hears an excellent course of lectures on Physiology and Hy- 
giene, but it is to be feared that too few make a personal 
application of what is taught them, and thus fail to gain 
what this instruction is mainly intended to impart. I am 
deeply impressed with the conviction that a radical change 
in this department is necessary, and that the laboratory 
system is quite as important in this as in other departments 
of the school. To make the instruction of the greatest 
value to each student it must be applied practically in 
each case ; and while I am not now prepared to advocate a 
compulsory system of gymnastics, I am satisfied that incal- 
culable good would come from a more personal application 
of the instruction, with opportunities for systematic exer- 
cise, under the direction, not of a mere gymnast, but of a 
physician who had made this application a matter of special 
study. If our students lived in dormitories, as at most 
colleges, or so- near each other that their spare time could 
be spent in out-door athletic sports, the case would be 
somewhat different ; but there is probably hardly another 
school in the country where the students are so thoroughly 
scattered, and such exercise had, if at all, at so great 
disadvantage. 

Our only remedy therefore, in addition to what is 
offered by the drill to only a portion of our students, is 
a gymnasium. 

We have also availed ourselves of the opportunity which 
the drill-hall has afforded us to establish, by way of ex- 
periment, a lunch-room^ where professors and students and 



20 



their friends can get a well-cooked and well-served dinner 
or lunch, as desired, at a very reasonable cost ; so reason- 
able as to induce those who have depended upon a cold 
lunch to do so no longer. 

In these improvements, President Runkle depended 
much on the energy and zeal of Lieutenant Zalinski. The 
analogy of all this wise solicitude for the welfare of students 
is singularly prophetic of our present days, when realization 
seems not distant. It is not strange that the Walker Me- 
morial has enlisted the warmest interest of Professor 
Runkle and Captain Zalinski. 

In the same year a beginning had been made of an en- 
gineering laboratory. Professor Nichols's report refers to 
certain chemical investigations in the service of the State 
which have since had so notable a development. 

The Report for 1875 contains for the first time a list of 
the 126 alumni with present residence and occupation, 
" furnishing the best evidence of the estimation in which 
the work of the school is held by the public." 

The Report for 1876 is largely occupied with matters 
connected with the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, 
in particular the Institute encampment and the exhibit of 
the Russian system of workshop instruction. Of the 
former, Lieutenant Zalinski's report gives an extended ac- 
count. The party started June 8, numbering more than 
370, — "Corporation, Faculty, graduates, former students, 
students and friends of members of the Institute," — with a 
few ladies. The University of Pennsylvania had granted 
the use of its campus for Camp W. B. Rogers, the State of 
Massachusetts loaned the necessary camping outfit, and 
many courtesies were extended by residents of Philadelphia. 

In establishing regulations for, and enforcing the disci- 
pline of the camp, it was the aim to have the minimum re- 



21 

striction and military work consistent with maintaining good 
order and securing the proper sanitary conditions necessary 
for the health and comfort of all. . . . The conduct of the 
students was exceptionally good and the subject of general 
commendation. 

The party returned to Boston June 23. 

President Runkle says, — 

The organization which had been found necessary for 
properly carrying on the instruction of the department, was 
found sufficient to maintain order and cohesion in a much 
larger body, and the Institute, as well as all the members 
of the party, owe a debt of gratitude to Lieutenant Zalinski 
for the energy and efficiency with which the whole affair 
was conducted. 

A great quantity of material was collected at the close 
of the exhibition as the nucleus for the Industrial Museum 
included in the original plan of the Institute. 

The most important result of President Runkle's visit 
to Philadelphia was his quick and enthusiastic appreciation 
of the exhibit of Russian methods of shop instruction, and 
of their potential advantage to the Institute in particular, 
and to American education in general. Within present lim- 
its the course of events can only be briefly indicated. In a 
special communication to the Corporation of the Institute, 
after recalling the experience in laboratory instruction of 
the Institute and other colleges, he savs : — 

We went to Philadelphia, therefore, earnestly seeking for 
light in this as well as in all other directions, and this 
special report is now made to ask your attention to a 
fundamental, and, as I think, complete solution of this 
most important problem of practical mechanism for engi- 
neers. The question is simply this — Can a system of 
shop-work instruction be devised of sufficient range and 



22 

quality, which will not consume more time than ought to 
be spared from the indispensable studies ? 

This question has been answered triumphantly in the 
affirmative, and the answer comes from Russia. 

In all constructions a certain limited number of typical 
forms are found, these forms being more or less modified, 
to adapt them to special constructions. These forms will 
also fall into groups each to be w r orked out in a certain 
way and with special tools. If, then, the student can be 
taught to work out these forms, each in the best way, and 
with the tools best adapted to the work, he will be far 
advanced in the skill which will make him available and 
useful in construction. The ideas involved in the system 
are, first, to entirely separate the instruction shops from the 
construction shops ; second, to do each kind of work in its 
own shop ; third, to equip each shop with as many places 
and sets of tools, and thus accommodate as many pupils as 
a teacher can instruct at the same time ; and, fourth, to 
graduate the samples to be made in each shop according to 
some scale, that of difficulty being probably the best in 
practice. In short, in these preliminary instruction shops 
the arts, which find their applications in construction, are 
systematically taught. 

In the light of the experience which Russia brings us, 
not only in the form of a proposed system, but proved by 
several years of experience in more than a single school, it 
seems to me that the duty of the Institute is plain. We 
should, without delay, complete our course in Mechanical 
Engineering by adding a series of instruction shops, which 
I earnestly recommend. The whole matter turns upon 
getting the proper rooms. It is already clear that there 
are no other difficulties which cannot readily be sur- 
mounted. 

The special report includes also the recommendation of 
the establishment of a two years' course in practical mechan- 
ism, which was afterwards carried out in the School of Me- 
chanic Arts. 



23 

In August, 1876, the Corporation authorized the erec- 
tion of a temporary building for shopwork and advanced 
chemistry, covering 7,500 square feet. The funds required 
were contributed in part by the Massachusetts Charitable 
Mechanic Association, in part by the Women's Educational 
Association with a view to securing opportunities for women 
students. The Russian government authorized the dupli- 
cation of its Philadelphia exhibit for the Institute. The 
material was received the next year, and the following votes 
passed by the Corporation : — 

Resolved, That the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology takes this opportunity to cordially congratulate His 
Imperial Highness, Prince Pierre d'Oldenbourg, that, at the Im- 
perial Technical School of Moscow, education in the Mechanic 
Arts has been for the first time based upon philosophical and purely 
educational grounds, fully justifying for it the title of the u Russian 
system." 

Resolved, That this Corporation hereby tenders its grateful thanks 
to His Imperial Highness for his most valuable gift, with the as- 
surance that these models will be of the greatest aid in promoting 
Mechanic Art education not only in the school of this Institute, but 
in all similar schools throughout the United States. 

The Report includes a review of much interest by Profes- 
sor Pickering of his ten years' work in the Department of 
Physics, concluding : — 

I cannot close this report without an acknowledgment 
of the aid I have received from you, Mr. President, in 
bringing our Laboratory into its present state of efficiency. 
Your confidence in its success from the very beginning, your 
encouragement and enthusiasm regarding its extension, and 
the interest you have shown in every detail, have helped, 
more than we have realized, to such success as we have at- 
tained. . . . 



2 4 

With hopes that the next decade may witness as great 
advances as that which is just completed, I remain, 

Very respectfully yours, 

Edward C. Pickering, 
Thayer Professor of Physics. 

The final Report (1877) contains an interesting analysis of 
student registration for the thirteen years. The proportion 
of special students was far larger than now, amounting in 
the final year to nearly 60 per cent. The proportion of 
the number of graduates to the number in the correspond- 
ing entering class varied after the first year from 16 per 
cent, to 47 per cent. The entering classes showed great 
fluctuations, the figures for the years 1872-76 being 115, 
6S y 36,66,36. 

The Report concludes : — 

In conclusion, I will say that as a whole the school has 
never been in a state of higher efficiency than at the present 
time. Our great and pressing need is additional funds ; 
and without immediate relief, we must either discontinue 
some of the departments, or cut down the salaries already 
too small, or more probably both. The fee for those tak- 
ing the full course is $200 per annum, and it is clearly out 
of the question to think of increasing the income by raising 
the tuition. It is even now far beyond the means of many 
deserving students. 

The value of the Institute as an agency in developing 
and diversifying the industries of the State can only be 
maintained by increasing its funds. I cannot think that 
the large sums which have already been contributed toward 
the establishment of our school, and particularly the large 
educational facilities and experience gathered together, shall 
be allowed to fail of the highest results for the want of 
additional means. 

This proved to be a valedictory. 



2 5 

The severe financial difficulties of the Institute are but 
dimly reflected in these Reports. As early as 1874 Presi- 
dent Runkle writes Professor Rogers of the Corporation's 
earnest wish to reduce expenses ; and questions of this kind 
continued to prove painfully insistent as years passed and 
attendance and resources diminished, or increased but 
meagrely. If the President's optimism helped him to 
endure the strain, it did not relieve him from most em- 
barrassing consequences, and must at times have made it 
difficult if not impossible for him to avoid arousing expecta- 
tions only too certain to be ultimately disappointed. In 
October, 1877, he writes to Professor Rogers: — 

For the present year a reduction of salaries will be im- 
perative ; and it will also be equally imperative for us to 
reduce our teaching expenses for the future by consolidating 
professorships and putting the work in fewer hands. It is 
this or bankruptcy, if we do not get at once from some 
source a large increase of our invested funds. ... I am not 
at all discouraged as to the future of the Institute, but I do 
deeply feel for all who must suffer for the Institute's 
sake. 

In the spring of 1878 an appeal for State aid was re- 
fused. May 3 1 the President communicated to Professor 
Rogers his intention to resign his office, and a week later 
addressed the following letter to the Corporation : — 

Boston, June 7, 1878. 

Gentlemen, — I have had the honor of serving the Institute of 
Technology as President of this Corporation for the past ten years. 

The time has come when I feel it my duty to resign this 
office, which I now respectfully beg to do, my resignatibn to take 
effect at the close of the present year. 

I intend to remain a member of the Corporation, and wish to 
retain the professorship with which you honored me at the opening 
of the school. 



26 

In resigning the Presidency, I wish to express my grateful 
thanks for the opportunity you have given me to identify myself in 
some small degree with the well-earned fame which the Institute 
enjoys in maintaining one of the leading, if not the leading technical 
school in this country. If permitted to retain my connection with 
the Institute, my earnest wish is that I may be able to serve it 
more efficiently in the future than I have been able to do in the 
past. 

Again, thanking you for the cordial support you have always 
given me in all educational measures, I ask you now to accept my 
resignation without ceremony and without delay. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. D. Runkle. 

On the same day Professor Rogers wrote to the Cor- 
poration : — 

Gentlemen, — As it is out of my power to be with you to-day, 
and as I understand from President Runkle that he wishes his 
resignation to be accepted without delay, I beg to say to you that I 
cannot let him relinquish the position which he has filled so long 
and so disinterestedly without expressing my sense of the great 
value of his services to the Institute. Few persons know the 
labours and perplexities which have been involved in carrying for- 
ward the plan of the Institute to its present widely expanded activ- 
ity, but all who have marked its progress will, I am sure, agree 
with me in a most grateful recognition of the unflagging devotion 
to its welfare which President Runkle has always shown, and will 
be assured that his zealous and disinterested labours as President 
of the Institute must always have an honoured place in its history. 
Believe me, yours faithfully, 

William B. Rogers. 

Dr. Runkle was granted a year's leave of absence, 
afterwards extended to two. Professor Rogers accepted re- 
election, pending the appointment of another President, on 



2 7 

condition that the Corporation raise $100,000 to add to 
the funds of the Institute. July 13 he wrote to Professor 
Runkle : — 

. . . And now, dear friend, with a full heart I must bid you 
good-by. We have known each other and have worked together 
so long, and, may I not say, so affectionately, that any professions 
of regard from me would be out of place. I can only say, in part- 
ing with you for a time, that I shall think of you with the old re- 
gard, wishing for you all the rest and the enjoyment which you 
have so richly earned by your untiring labours, and hoping that, 
after a not too protracted stay abroad, you may come back to your 
friends with renewed health, and with undiminished, if not aug- 
mented zeal, in the educational work to which you have devoted 
yourself. 

Yours faithfully, 

William B. Rogers. 

In 1880, Dr. Runkle returned with renewed health and 
strength. His storm-and-stress period was ended, and 
two fruitful years in Europe had now intervened. Still 
young at fifty-eight, he was to enjoy a delightful home life 
with the care and education of his young children, useful 
and honored citizenship in a suburban town, year after year 
of inspiring teaching, leadership in the broadening of sec- 
ondary education along the lines he had earnestly followed 
since 1876. 

Discussions of priority are seldom profitable, and are 
often at fault for lack of accurate definition. In the pres- 
ent instance no question of origination is involved. It had 
been President Runkle's merit to be the first to appreciate 
the American need of mechanic arts instruction based on 
principles already successfully applied in Russia. He was 
primarily interested in it as an invaluable addition to exist- 
ing engineering courses, but he also saw clearly its great 



28 

potential significance for general secondary education, and 
so far as possible under pressure of other needs, demon- 
strated this by the inauguration of the School of Mechanic 
Arts, already referred to, in which boys of high-school age 
were offered a two years' course, including mathematics, 
English, French, history, mechanical and free-hand draw- 
ing, and shopwork. His visit to Europe enabled him to 
make a study of Continental schools of similar purpose ; 
and the results of this study are embodied in a paper pre- 
sented to the Society of Arts in April, 1881, on "Tech- 
nical and Industrial Education Abroad," in an extended 
contribution to the Report of the Massachusetts Board of 
Education for 1880-81, and in a " Report on Industrial 
Education" in 1884. His matured convictions of the 
latter date are embodied in the following resolutions : — 

First. The single aim of our public education should be 
the physical, mental, and moral training of the young, by 
all suitable means and agencies ; and no study or discipline 
which is not adapted to these ends for all pupils should be 
introduced into our public schools and supported at the 
public expense. 

Second. While the training of the mental faculties must 
always be the first and distinct aim of all education, still this 
training is most effective when all the senses are most fully 
brought into play as factors in the general process. 

Third. We believe that hand instruction, no matter of 
what kind, if adapted to the age of the pupil and properly 
conducted, can be made disciplinary, and a valuable ad- 
junct to the purely literary studies. 

Fourth. We believe that a hand study, requiring not more 
on the average than one hour per day, can be introduced into 
our public schools without impairing the educational value 
of the studies now taught, and with no abridgment of the 
time now devoted to them which will not come through 
better methods of teaching, or on other grounds. 



20 

Fifth. We believe that a workshop, as part of the appa- 
ratus of a public school, is as desirable as a science labora- 
tory is to the technical school or college. 

Sixth. It is the deliberate opinion of this Association 
that the time has come when hand work should be taught 
to the proper extent in all our public schools, both be- 
cause of its educational value, and because the social and 
industrial conditions have so changed as to make such 
teaching necessarv. 

Others have taken a more directly prominent share in 
the introduction and extension of mechanic arts or manual 
training in primary and secondary schools, but the actual 
experiment initiated by President Runkle in Boston had 
in its time wide influence and imitation. In Brookline, 
Dr. Runkle was long an active member of the school 
committee, and a modern school-house bears his name. 

As a teacher of mathematics, Professor Runkle found 
his highest usefulness and most congenial vocation, — a 
vocation to be happily continued for not less than twenty- 
one years. The present writer may be permitted to recall 
the beginnings of an acquaintance which he has had the 
good fortune to enjoy from the beginning of this period. 
He remembers as from yesterday the (to his immature 
view) venerable but robust figure, the somewhat straggling 
locks of gray with a tawny tinge, the stimulating, luminous, 
unconventional exposition, the quick, incisive questioning, 
the surprising blackboard drawing, the inimitable touches 
of the confidential or the monitory, the constant substratum 
of uplifting earnestness and dignity. None of his students 
could fail to acquire admiring affection : very few could 
withstand the incentive to work. Which of them will not 
recall such characteristic expressions as this, " Now, gentle- 
men, I am going to show you one of the most beautiful 
and interesting things you ever came across ?" 



3° 

In 1880, Professors Runkle and Osborne were the en- 
tire mathematical staff, and nearly every student came in 
contact with both. As years have passed, this has greatly 
changed ; and in recent times only a fraction of the students 
in calculus have met in 22 Rogers. Professor Runkle's 
place in the affections of the alumni has been none the less 
secure, and to no representative of the school have they 
extended more cordial invitations or more enthusiastic 
greetings. As a teacher, Dr. Runkle maintained his inter- 
est and zeal in a remarkable degree. In the class-room he 
renewed his youth. His teaching became the most vital 
part of his life. Until the summer of 1901 he had done 
full work. In the fall, feeling somewhat doubtful of his 
strength, he was relieved at his own request. An oppor- 
tunity arising for substitute work, he was more than willing 
to fill it, even expressing the idea that he had made a 
mistake in giving up. But his earlier judgment had been 
well founded. His strength soon proved unequal to the 
task, and he was afterwards able to be at the Institute but 
rarely. 

As a member of the Corporation and the Faculty, — and 
either position may prove easily embarrassing for an ex- 
President, — Dr. Runkle's position has been unique and 
his relations with his colleagues during these twenty-one 
years have been most fortunate. Always ready and glad 
to place his own experience and best judgment unre- 
servedly at the service of his associates, his attitude has 
never been critical, even in implication. He frequently 
presided at Faculty meetings, and was long a member of 
the Faculty Committee on Scholarships, — a place in keep- 
ing with his unceasing interest in student welfare. 

As senior member of the mathematical staff, his relations 
with his younger associates have been not merely friendly, 



3 1 

but almost paternal. In the early years the department 
had been too small to need formal organization. After it 
became larger, he was disposed to leave much initiative to 
his juniors ; and any progressive tendencies of theirs never 
failed to receive his prompt appreciation and encourage- 
ment. He expressed his interest in the department by 
donating to it his own valuable collection, and was not a 
little pleased at the action of the Corporation in giving to 
the enlarged library his own name. 

Near the end of the past school year the following letter 
was addressed to Professor Runkle by his colleagues of the 
Faculty : — 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
Boston, May 31, 190a. 

Dear Professor Runkle, — In recognition of your recent appoint- 
ment as professor emeritus, we desire as your colleagues in the 
Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to tender an 
expression of our high regard. 

We remember with grateful appreciation your eminent services 
to the Institute from its foundation, and your warm personal 
interest in your students and your associates. 

We trust that it may be agreeable to you, at such time as you 
may prefer, to give us the great pleasure of meeting us at a dinner 
at the Technology Club. 

This pleasure was unfortunately not to be realized. 

Professor Runkle was a man of much intellectual quick- 
ness and strength, of ardent, but in later years serene, tem- 
perament, of warm and generous affections, ot cordial 
unaffected courtesy, in all the relations of life a sincere and 
loyal gentleman. Throughout his early and middle life he 
was a pioneer, first in the struggle for his own education 
and that of his brothers, next in the establishment and con- 
tinuance of a much-needed but, as it turned out, premature 



3^ 

mathematical journal, then and for many years in the de- 
velopment of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
and the introduction of education in the mechanic arts. 
In all these undertakings his insight and courage were in- 
valuable. He made President Rogers' plans for the Insti- 
tute his own. He held steadfastly to its fundamental 
ideals, and, taking account of his scanty resources, made 
remarkable progress toward their fulfilment. The main 
changes he initiated have been abundantly justified by time, 
and he has lived to see their fulfilment. 

His students have been his lifelong friends, and some 
have had the good fortune to renew the friendship through 
their sons. In his declining years he has enjoyed the 
abundant fruition of many hopes. He has been able to 
continue the work he loved nearly to the end, which has 
come as we may believe he would have chosen. His name 
and memory are now added to those traditions which con- 
stitute what is permanent in the Institute of Technology. 

H. W. Tyler, '84. 



A 



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OCT. 68 

^.^ N. MANCHESTER. 
INDIANA 



